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I have noticed some rapid changes in businesses in Mason.
The other night my wife was craving a typical fast food hamburger for dinner. I knew she is not a McDonald's fan so I drove over to the OH-741, Beach Blvd intersection, thinking about Wendy's. As I turned onto Beach Blvd I was surprised to see the Wendy's closed and almost torn down. So I just kept turning left and into Burger King.
I had been in the area earlier in the week on Monday on my way home from a colonoscopy exam down near Bethesda North and really desiring a full breakfast. I pulled onto the Water Park Dr back from Beach Blvd to the Beach, thinking Bob Evans. Lo and behold Bob Evans is closed and boarded up. So I backed out and went across OH-741 to the Perkins Family Restaurant knowing I could get a full breakfast there. I swear I thought Wendy's was open and operating, just not my idea of breakfast.
On Saturday I was craving some preps for the Super Bowl today. One of my favorite sit and nibble foods is pickled herring on Triscuit crackers. When I want pickled herring it is off to Costco I go, I also intended to get some mixed party nuts plus whatever else stroke my fancy. Since I was already in Mason I took Tylersville Rd east to Columbia Rd at the south end of Kings Island and then further southeast to Montgomery Rd. It was then south on Montgomery to Fields Ertel and then to the drive into Costco.
On the way home I suddenly remembered something I had forgotten. Oh well I will just go to Kroger on OH-741. So I took Kings Island Drive from Columbia to Kings Mills Rd. Another surprise, at the northeast corner of the Kings Island Drive and Kings Mills Rd intersection is a brand new Wendy's, and quite a large one. From the roof height it looks like it could have an indoor playroom like McDonald's. Regardless it is right across the street from McDonald's and apparently ready to do battle.
On continuing over Kings Mills Rd I took note of a newly redecorated Mexican Restaurant by the name of Viva Tequila in what was the original Bill Knapps near Kings Island Drive. As I crossed I-71 I noted more vacant structures had been demolished along Water Park Dr and the land cleared. The opening of the new Mason Grand Apartment complex off Kings Mills Rd is definitely going to contribute to increased restaurant activity in the vicinity.
I have my doubts concerning the large Thirsty's Oasis Sports Bar & Grill which took over the original conference area and smaller bar at the south end of the building housing Perkins. They have gone heavily into the craft brew offerings, trying to tread on the current market. But to me they need an improved food offering to attract the level of clientele willing to pay the price. The original motel just to the south is now a Super 8 affiliate.
Another straining question is what will happen to the original Kings Island Inn and Resort which recently closed on Kings Island Drive. It is a large facility and not very well suited to sub-dividing. The Great Wolf Lodge had to have a lot with this happening. Their advertised 84-degree winter time indoor water park temperature sure attracts the kiddies.
The excitement and intrigue of suburbia never end!
Didn't some new pump islands get added at the BP station just the other day?
How's the four-lane drive-thru working at Taco Bell?
Is the Super Duper Mega Kroger still under construction?
Were the traffic jams bad around the Paperback Bible Church this morning?
Have any price-immune transplants from the East or West Coast, or Asia, dropped seven figures on a McMansion by a fake lake lately?
Was Kleenex cheaper at Walgreen's or CVS?
Did the Girls Scouts sell enough cookies, and the high school archery team enough cans of mixed nuts, to finance their educational trips to Florida?
Are those traffic lights on (pick a street) STILL stuck on flashing red?
But yes, some significant money changes hands with all of the reconfiguration of suburban environs, particularly those around Kings Island.
Kings Island was opened for its first season in 1972, making it about 43 years old. There is no denying it is the main contributor to what has happened around Mason. The house I live in, purchased 2nd hand in 1976, was coincidentally built in 1972. The original owner was transferred to Illinois. So I have seen all the changes in the area for the last 39 years, and still going.
The subdivision I live in is not one of the oldest in town but abuts the oldest. The older homes are mostly 3 bedroom ranches built on crawl space or slabs. But most of them had 2-car garages and the lot sizes accommodated expansions for add on family rooms, etc. I have noticed even the smaller ones have not yet become candidates for tear-downs, but many are being bought and completely updated. New roofs, new windows, new driveways, new kitchens and baths, etc. When completed they frankly look new. Makes me smile to see a new family come in and occupy a property giving them access to one of the best school districts in the state. And I do also note many of the new families are culturally and racially diverse, which was NOT the case when I moved here 39 years ago.
Far as price-immune transplants from elsewhere dropping seven figures on a McMansion by a fake lake, not so many. 1st of all they don't have to go seven figures, this is not Boston after all. And the lake is probably real, not fake. Sure you can find seven figure homes here and much higher. But the average are not.
As is well known, I am perfectly happy with my suburban living.
We don't have a super-mega Kroger under construction, but the one we do have was recently reconfigured in every sales aisle. We now have a section labeled Asian foods. All of the shelves have been reconfigured and relabeled quite nicely with both overhead and end-of-aisle signs. The variety of items being stocked has increased significantly. How do you do this?, you reduce the linear shelf space for each item. This may be a problem for the shelf stocking personnel, but I have already experienced how the increased number of products available is appealing. So somebody is paying attention to what customers are desiring.
So you can expound negatively on the suburban living experience all you want. I just hope mine will carry on through my days on this planet.
I am now trying to figure out that term URBAN. I look up a definition and receive no consolation. The simplest is characteristic of a city. Big whoopee, what does your definition of city entail?
I was born in an apartment in Norwood, moved quickly to an apartment in Deer Park, then moved to a rented house in Madeira. All of this before I was 5. Stayed in Madeira until I was 35 and moved to Mason. Neither my definition of Urban was filled by Madeira (cow town) or Mason (Cow Town #2). When I read some of the designations of Urban, I go NFW!.
I need to have a much better definition of Urban which I can understand. I look at where I live and it is designated suburban. Does this mean it is sub or beneath the usual conditions of Urban? Maybe in your opinion, but certainly not mine.
What I am stating here is this whole declaration of Urban, Suburban needs rethinking. If you want me to discard an environment of living which has been very kind to me for 39 years, forget it. What is your alternative?
Far as I am concerned, liking where I live, having confidence I can maintain it, are the ingredients I strived for all my life. When someone states you missed the boat, I want to ask Where?
KJ, all of your questions can be answered by one simple fact: there are people in this world and a lot of them in this country who believe that any time one consumes the first excess bit of air, space, energy or resources beyond their minimal needs, one should feel guilty and re-think what one is doing. It is the predicate for urban living, mass transportation, green energy, food content regulation, and just about every other liberal crackpot idea. Ignore them. You have worked hard and contributed a lot more than most and if you want to have a front lawn and a room in your house you don't need, or drive to a supermarket in a bigassed car you deserve it.
The Wendy's closing would have been worrisome, especially given their strong financial performance in recent years, but glad to see that wasn't the case. I'm also surprised a Kroger Marketplace in Mason isn't in the works..
And as far as the urban vs. suburban debate goes, I'm one who is of the belief that we should use what we already have before we build more. And that what is built should be built well so it will be desirable for generations to come.
A good analogy is eating at a restaurant, maybe even Thirsty Oasis as you reference above. Would any logical person order a meal, throw half of it away, and then order a large expensive dessert? Heck no!
The only reason why I could think of that anyone rational would do that is because the meal was bad.
Same goes for urban development (and yes I count any built environment, not just dense cities). People need to stop being incentivized to throw away their meals (i.e. previously built houses) so they can just eat dessert (i.e. building a new house). And if they do build a house, there needs to be proper zoning and planning in place to ensure it will be a place people will want to live for generations to come (i.e. Mason, anti-example would be places like Monroe, Lakota, and Forest Park). To put it back in terms of the restaurant, good food needs to be served so people come back.
If the food's bad.... doesn't matter one bit how trendy or exciting the restaurant is, people will go back to their old haunts. Or even newer and trendier places. Same goes for cities. Let's build for a lifetime, not a decade...
I see absolutely no reason why I should be charged with bearing the cost of building a house to last for decades, why? What will the future owners have contributed to the value of constructing the house?
I do expect to be able to nurse the home I have for as long as I can live in it. After that, I have no problem with it being torn down and replaced with something new. I have already been in this house for almost 4 decades. If I can extend it for another decade or two it will have served me well.
The excitement and intrigue of suburbia never end!
*snort*
I doubt if I'd recognize that area -- it's been a long time since I had a membership at The Beach or was a weekend regular at the lounge at the Kings Island Inn ().
I shake my head when joints like Wendy's knock down a building that is 25 years old at best and erect a new one two blocks down the line. That kind of waste irks me, especially concerning a building that is nothing more than utilitarian, and you see it all the time in the 'burbs. Oooh ... shiny ...
I doubt if I'd recognize that area -- it's been a long time since I had a membership at The Beach or was a weekend regular at the lounge at the Kings Island Inn ().
I shake my head when joints like Wendy's knock down a building that is 25 years old at best and erect a new one two blocks down the line. That kind of waste irks me, especially concerning a building that is nothing more than utilitarian, and you see it all the time in the 'burbs. Oooh ... shiny ...
They actually wear these buildings out. They are not really buildings, they are equipment in a box on the ground. There is no residual use for an old fast food restaurant. It won't be condos or a flower shop. Its a used up piece of equipment the best destiny of which is a trip to the dump so that the valuable land underneath it (all fast foods are built on valuable ground) can find an appropriate use.
I see absolutely no reason why I should be charged with bearing the cost of building a house to last for decades, why? What will the future owners have contributed to the value of constructing the house?
I do expect to be able to nurse the home I have for as long as I can live in it. After that, I have no problem with it being torn down and replaced with something new. I have already been in this house for almost 4 decades. If I can extend it for another decade or two it will have served me well.
Because if you build only to appease your requirements for a decade or two, you're building a community that is only viable for a decade or two.
Mason has done an excellent job of not doing this, and I believe in the past you attributed this success largely to the vision of a former mayor. Fairfield and Forest Park, not so much. You can see where each community is at today, and where they are going in the future in relation to their age. All are relatively newly built communities. But some are going to be doing a lot better in the future than others. All in the design of the houses and community itself, from schools and parks to city services and community building groups.
Some places are built to last generations, others are only built to last for a few years....
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